Emotional Intelligence and Addictions: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Since the millennium, an expanding number of research articles have examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and physical and mental health. The relationship between EI and addictive disorders has, however, remained relatively well-hidden. We therefore systematically reviewed and critically evaluated the literature on this relationship. We identified 51 articles on the topic of which 36 fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Results indicate that a lower level of EI is associated with more intensive smoking, alcohol use, and illicit drug use and two components of EI play a key role in addictions: “decoding and differentiation of emotions” and “regulation of emotions.”

RÉSUMÉ

Intélligence émotionnelle et addictions: un tour d’horizon systématique.

Depuis les années , un nombre croissant de recherches ont examiné la relation entre l’intelligence émotionnelle (IE) et la santé physique et psychique. Mais en même temps, la relation entre l’IE et les troubles addictifs est restée relativement obscure. Pour ce fait, nous nous sommes engagés à une analyse systématique et à une évaluation critique de la bibliographie de cette relation. Nous avons identifié quarante-et-une recherches sur le sujet, dont trente-six ont satisfait les critères d’admissions de notre analyse. Selon les résultats, un niveau d’IE faible s’accompagne d’un usage de tabac, et d’une consommation d’alcool et de drogue illicite plus intensive. Selon ces mêmerésultats, deux composants de l’IE jouent un role clé du point de vue des addictions: «le décodage et la différentiation des émotions» et la «régularisation des émotions».

RESUMEN

Inteligencia emocional y adicciones: una revisión sistemática

Desde el milenio cada vez más investigaciones se dedican a la relación entre la inteligencia emocional (IE) y la salud física y mental. Al mismo tiempo, la relación entre la IE y los desordenes adictivos se ha quedado relativamente escondido. De ahí que hayamos revisado y evaluado con crítica la literatura profesional de esta relación. Hemos identificado 41 artículos tratando de eso, y 30 de ellos han cumplido los criterios de estar incluido en nuestra investigación. Según nuestros resultados, una IE más baja está relacionada con el fumar, el uso de alcohol y de drogas más intensivo y dos componentes de la inteligencia emocional desempeňan un papel clave desde el punto de vista de las adicciones: el “desciframiento y diferenciación de las emociones” y la “regulación de las emociones”.

Keywords :

• emotional intelligence
• substance use
• chemical addictions
• behavioral addictions
• systematic review
• self-medication
• self-regulation

THE AUTHORS

Bernadette Kun is a psychologist working at the Institutional Group on Addiction Research at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. She is a Ph.D. student at the Personality and Health Psychology Doctoral Program, Eötvös Loránd University. Her main interest is the emotional regulation process of addictions and she is doing her doctoral dissertation on the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychoactive substance use. She also works at the National Institute for Drug Prevention, where she is head of a project aiming the development of the Hungarian addiction treatment system.

Zsolt Demetrovics is a clinical psychologist and cultural anthropologist and has a Ph.D. in health psychology. Dr. Demetrovics is head of the Institutional Group on Addiction Research at the Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Psychology, Budapest, Hungary. His primary research is focused on the characteristics of legal and illegal drug use in the recreational scene and he also studies the family and personality background of psychoactive substance use and behavioural addictions.